workingfortheman.com

What's the deal with all these teenagers making millions in the technology industry? Doesn't anybody work at McDonald's anymore? Don't get me wrong, I'm not jealous or anything, even though I have every right to be. I just don't understand how these young kids are getting grand ideas and actually following through with them to make a ton of money, start their own companies, and retire at the age of twenty-five. I'm thirty-one and still don't know exactly what direction my career path will ultimately take. I guess possibilities and expectations are so much greater these days that teenagers don't have to settle for fast food as their first foray into the working world. Maybe that's where I went wrong - I started off at Chuck-E-Cheese.

When I was sixteen, I was thrilled to get a job at Chuck-E-Cheese Pizza Time Theater. For those of you who haven't been exposed to a Chuck-E-Cheese, it's a pizza restaurant filled with video games, carnival-like activities, and mechanical animals who sing and dance every so often. Basically it's a child's paradise. My first position there was as a cashier, but with a lot of hard work and a go-getter attitude, I was able to rise to the coveted position of "The Rat." That's right, I was Chuck - one of the few, the proud - who got to dress up as the main attraction. I walked in to the joint as a typical, nondescript teen, but once I donned the huge, gray, fuzzy jumpsuit and put the enormous plastic head over my own, I emerged from the dressing room as the star of the show. Children flocked to me, adults smiled at me, and all I had to do was walk around the restaurant and nod my head every now and then. I didn't even have to speak.

This is not to say that the job was easy. Maybe I wasn't running my own Internet company, but there was a lot of pressure. Those kids expected me to be upbeat at all times, which was difficult some days, since the costume was hot and heavy. Also, the scheduling mavens that ran my life made the mistake of placing me right after some six-foot goon wore the costume. He was the maximum height to wear it, and I was the minimum. Try explaining that to a bunch of kids who saw a tall Chuck one minute, then fifteen minutes later, a shrunken five-foot version. Sometimes the little kids actually cried as a result. My most trying moment was when some unaccompanied teens entered the video game arena. (All children were supposed to be with an adult.) They started harassing me by pushing me around and taunting me: "Oh, you think you're something special, Chuck?" In the scuffle, my huge plastic head came tumbling off my shoulders. A crowd of children stared at me in disbelief, shocked to see that Chuck-E-Cheese was just someone in a costume. I'm sure some of those kids are still in therapy.

On the whole, though, my experience there was enriching. I learned how to deal with people. This is a skill in which many of the savvy, technologically-gifted teens of the day may be lacking. Instead of making their millions early, they should join the rest of us and start off in a low-paying, fast food type job. Then they can learn that not everything is given to them on a silver platter - they have to work hard if they want to rise to the position of Chuck.

Terri Cash is currently a stay-at-home mom, but has had a variety of jobs in the past, ranging from administrative to management to teaching middle-school students. Now she writes "on the clock" while neglecting poopy diapers and dirty dishes.

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